Fall Off Your New Year's Resolutions? Try Identity-Based Habits

❗Housekeeping update

tl;dr: I’ll be out of town in February. Meetups will continue, facilitated by my friend and cool human Sandra Bershad! More about her in the post.

🎯 What’s Included

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From the Community

❗Feedback requests, Capital Factory sponsorship, Between Shells (community event), February meetup details + introducing Sandra

💡 Skill Spotlight

Identity vs. Outcome-Based Habits

📆 Join us IRL

A²’s next Conscious Connection for founders, leaders, and curious people is on February 19 at 6:00pm.

We're inviting both the market-focused leader AND the spiritual seeker within you to the table. It's a great place to make authentic connections in an intimate setting.

Our calendar is the hub for A² IRL gatherings. Subscribing is the easiest way to get notified of these!

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 From The Community

🤝🏾 A BIG new partnership with Capital Factory

As many of you know, Authentic Austin events are different than traditional networking and include meditation, facilitated connection, and super vulnerable shares. As a result, they're best suited for more private spaces that allow for the safety required for vulnerability and depth.

And finding recurring space has been the single hardest task in running the community.

As of yesterday, Capital Factory is an official partner of Authentic Austin. They’ll be donating recurring event space each month to us and integrating A² into their programming. I’m so excited to embed the values of conscious entrepreneurship into the nexus of the startup community in Austin.

More about Capital Factory:

​Capital Factory is the center of gravity for entrepreneurs in Texas. They meet the best entrepreneurs in Texas and introduce them to their first investors, employees, mentors, and customers. To sign up for a Capital Factory coworking membership, click here.

🐚 Between Shells (community event)

Join my friends and authentic community aficionados Dave, Kristen, and Sandra for an evening of coziness and collaboration to get a clearer sense of yourself and your work. And maybe even leave with your people!

🅰️² February meetup + Introducing Sandra

Sandra will be facilitating the February Conscious Connection event (and more!). If you’ve come to previous events, you got a chance to meet her. Her energy is lovely and I’m so excited to have her facilitate and meet you all.

We're building Conscious Connection by inviting both the market-focused leader AND the spiritual seeker within you to the table.

Know anyone that’s looking for more of that in their life? I’d appreciate it if you invited them to our next event!

💡 Skill Spotlight

Identity vs. Outcome-Based Habits

Most of us approach habit formation with outcome-based goals:

• "I want to lose 20 pounds"

• "I want to save $5000"

• "I want to run a marathon"

While these goals provide clear targets, they often lack the staying power for long-term change. For example, if you want to run a marathon but get injured during training, you’re more likely to stop running entirely because you can’t achieve your goal.

Enter identity-based habits, which focus on who you want to become rather than what you want to achieve:

• "I am a healthy person who prioritizes nutrition and exercise"

• "I am a financially savvy individual who values saving"

• "I am a runner"

Identity-based habits are powerful because:

• They drive behaviors from internal motivation

• They are more resilient in the face of obstacles

• They enable lasting change beyond specific goals

Try This: The Identity Shift Challenge

1. Choose an area of your life you want to improve

2. Instead of setting an outcome-based goal, define the identity you want to embody (use the examples above to guide you if you need help!)

3. List 3 small daily actions that align with this new identity

4. Practice these actions consistently for 2 weeks

5. Email me to let me know how this goes for you!

Remember, the key is to focus on becoming the type of person who can achieve the outcomes you want, rather than fixating on the outcomes themselves.

📚 Resource Corner

• Book: Atomic Habits by James Clear - explores the concept of identity-based habits in depth

• App & Community: Heroic - an excellent integrative educational platform and habit-tracking app that combines identities with some fun gamified features

📆 Join Us IRL

A²’s next Conscious Connection for founders, leaders, and curious people is on February 19 at 6:00pm.

We're inviting both the market-focused leader AND the spiritual seeker within you to the table. It's a great place to make authentic connections in an intimate setting.

Basically this graphic:

📫 Our calendar is the hub for A² IRL gatherings. Subscribing is the easiest way to get notified of these!